Menswear

The good things about Paul Ryan’s bad suits

August 30, 2012 12:38 pm by Vanessa Friedman

A number of questions were answered about Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney’s VP pick, during his speech last night at the Republican Convention last night. Would he come out fighting? Check. Would he address the Medicare issue? Kind of. Would he make winning jokes about his new boss? Check. Would his famously ill-fitting, too baggy suits, which Esquire likened to a trash bag, be given a Sarah-Palin-type makeover? Nope. Now the question is: why not?
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Posted in Menswear, Politics, US election |

E-tail is not enough

July 27, 2012 3:19 pm by Vanessa Friedman

Attention luxury shoppers: finally some news that would indicate the industry is not in quite as dire straits as trend-watchers keep predicting thanks to its foot-dragging, Luddite-like approach to on-line shopping. Read on! Read more

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Posted in Internet, Luxury goods, Menswear |

What should PPR do with its windfall?

July 26, 2012 1:53 pm by Vanessa Friedman

Even before its results announcement today, PPR had made some news: it was proceeding apace with its plan to dispose of no-longer-core assets (ie, non-luxury/sports lifestyle rbands), and had agreed to sell 29.8% of its stake in CFAO, an African automotive and pharmaceutical distribution company, to Toyota Tsusho Corporation. This should net the PPR guys about €980 million.The stated plan is to use the money to pay down debt, but in that impossible-to-control way of things, already there is speculation among some watchers about what they might buy, if they were going to use the money to buy something. I love a nice round of speculation. Read more

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Posted in Fashion, Financial results, Luxury goods, Menswear |

Occupy the runway

June 19, 2012 1:50 pm by Vanessa Friedman

As far as strange, opaque industries go, modelling is up there with espionage and rocket science: it’s a world built on image, and invested in preserving its mystery. Recently, however, two inmates (intimates?) have started to speak out about the reality, and what’s interesting is they’re not talking about the sex/drugs/eating disorders issues we are used to, but rather employment-law-type infractions: pay inequality, ridiculously long working hours, bad working conditions, and child labour. Read more

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Posted in Fashion, Menswear, Politics, Womenswear |

LVMH buys into menswear wars

June 14, 2012 3:01 pm by Vanessa Friedman

LVMH just announced the acquisition of Arnys, a family-owned French made-to-measure tailor established in 1933. It seems the plan is to combine it with Berluti, to give that brand, run by Antoine Arnault (aka Bernard Arnault’s eldest son) a super-high end suiting service. The former luxury shoe brand also launched men’s ready-to-wear last season. Take that, Savile Row! And take that, PPR! Read more

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Posted in China, Menswear |

L’Oreal heir is the new new thing in menswear

May 24, 2012 2:55 pm by Vanessa Friedman

“2% of the population under 30, and 2% of the population under 40 are millionaires who are not being catered to by the men’s knitwear market,” So said Jean-Victor Meyers to me yesterday, explaining his new men’s cashmere business, which aims to change all that. Read more

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Posted in Luxury goods, Menswear |

Zegna one-ups the menswear market

May 3, 2012 4:56 pm by Vanessa Friedman

Will real men buy silk? And not silk ties, but silk shirts, silk suits, silk trench coats, silk sweaters and silk…seersucker? Can silk be sold, successfully, as “the cashmere of summer,” and hence raise the stakes in the race for the next luxury fibre once again? These are the questions. Not that Hamlet had to worry about them, of course. Ermenegildo Zegna does.

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Posted in China, Fashion, Luxury goods, Menswear |

London menswear’s missed opportunity

April 24, 2012 3:41 pm by Vanessa Friedman

As if the Jubilee and the Olympics weren’t enough, this June London fashion will inaugurate its first ever dedicated men’s wear – well, not week. Three days! You have to start somewhere.The announcement marks an interesting evolution in British fashion thinking. But here’s the thing: it doesn’t go far enough.

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Posted in Menswear, Ready-to-wear, Shows |
From FT.com April 21, 2012

On Sunday the French electorate goes to the polls for the first round of presidential elections, which are widely expected to result in a François Hollande/Nicolas Sarkozy face-off in round two. Much has been made of this being a quasi-referendum on the future of the euro, France’s relationship with Germany and the rate of taxation on the top 10 per cent of the population (not to mention whether or not France feels it’s time to get a Socialist back in the Elysée). But it seems to me there’s another issue also at stake that hasn’t really been discussed but is equally interesting: the question of what it means to appear presidential in a straitened economic era. Read more

Posted in Fashion, Menswear, Politics |

Can China save Made in Italy?

April 9, 2012 4:36 pm by Vanessa Friedman

Much hair-pulling and hand-wringing has gone on in the last few years over the migration of manufacturing jobs from Western nations to Asia, where costs are lower — exemplified in part in the Obama administration’s current “Made in America” campaign — but a piece today in the FT suggests that, when it comes to luxury and Europe at least, the equation may be about to reverse.

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Posted in China, Luxury goods, Menswear, Politics |
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